Problem: Ashley is 5 times as old as Ishaan and is also 16 years older than Ishaan. How old is Ishaan?
Explanation: We can use the given information to write down two equations that describe the ages of Ashley and Ishaan. Let Ashley's current age be $a$ and Ishaan's current age be $i$ $a = 5i$ $a = i + 16$ Now we have two independent equations, and we can solve for our two unknowns. Since we are looking for $i$ , and both of our equations have $a$ alone on one side, this is a convenient time to use elimination. Subtracting the second equation from the first equation, we get: $0 =$ $5i$ $-$ $ (i + 16)$ which combines the information about $i$ from both of our original equations. Solving for $i$ , we get: $4 i = 16$ $i = 4$.